The Ultimate Incentive muddles along

Dinah93

I swear I wrote a long post last night but depressingly I must not have posted it before my (pretty new) laptop overheated and shut down. 

Managed to get the design spreadsheet a bit more updated and filled in, but not finished yet. 

Did something I've not done for many years, channeled my inner Cinny and planned meals for the week. How expensive is food?! I don't know if this is just because I've gotten pretty lazy on meals of late and kept it very simple with pastas, meat and potatoes kind of meals as well as ready made pizzas, pies, sandwiches or soup for lunch, but I asked everyone to pick one meal for the week ahead, then planned two soups to make for lunches (as well as getting some bread and wraps for lunches other days). I don't think I've planned anything mad, pork and cider hot pot, fish pie, fajitas, but my god when you actually make a list of required ingredients it adds up, a fish pie even using the most basic ingredients is the bones of £20, I think I was happier in oblivion of just bunging whatever I fancied in the basket and seeing what I could turn it into later! 

Managed to get 6 short form podcasts recorded while the kids and NIM went on a bit of a longer than usual pup walk. So my goal is to get those edited today. 

Today's mini list

• Edit 6 mini podcasts and schedule 
• Finish writing 1x long form podcast 
• Record long form podcast 
• Investigate Medium
• Edit and schedule 3 yoga classes from before Christmas 

Dinah93

Morning everyone, how was your weekend? Suitably stay at home and save the nhs-ish for those in the UK? We went to the little playground on the next housing estate over (about a 3 minute walk) on Sunday, and in the 45 minutes we were there no one else came which was brilliant, our garden is something of a swamp at this point, all the new grass we planted in the summer is submerged and it's a very very muddy place to play. On Saturday we went a little further afield, 20 minute drive to the beach, the bit we were on was very quiet, like us just a few people with dogs strolling about, possibly being -4C most people decided it wasn't beach weather. 

Home schooling has gone surprisingly well today, all their set work is already done for today, as well as PE with Joe, Duolingo and times tables rockstars. So this afternoon will be some ipad led learning with the bbc shows and a few apps we have, and hopefully I can get some work done today. I got bored and decided to empty out my bedside table while 'teaching' this morning, so now I need to work out an orderly way to get those things back in! 

My goals for today: 

edit 3 x mini podcast

record 1 x TFM longer podcast

Edit 1 x TFM 

Edit 3, schedule and upload x pre Christmas zoom classes 

Complete spreadsheet for various sites 

Tiny bit hopeful I might get at least some of these done since school has gone by so fast for once. 

wendz86

We also went to a little local park , normally empty but were a couple of other families there. Kids got very muddy.
The kids are doing a mix of being in school and home learning when me or their dad isn't working. I did Friday with them which wasn't too bad. H loves all the home learning stuff but P is harder to engage. 

Dinah93

edit 3 x mini podcast

record 1 x TFM longer podcast

Edit 1 x TFM - I've edited the sound and I've started building the video elements, but it's going to be another hour or so's work. 

Edit 3, schedule and upload x pre Christmas zoom classes 

Complete spreadsheet for various sites 
Refund emails received over the weekend

So, nice clear list to finish off tomorrow I think. 

Dinah93

1. Find the last totals so I can finish updating my signature 
2. Set up printful integration to Ebay 
3. Set up printful integration to Amazon
4. Make full spreadsheet of designs so far and check they are all uploaded to all my sites
5. Investigate Medium
6. Set up equipment
7. 5 new equipment videos 
8. Create structure of next TFM script  
9. 2 new yoga videos 
10. Investigate lockdown grants - Arts Fund/Lottery/NEBL/D/cD/N/H/R/M/RC/Sports England
11. 120 POD designs to get caught up for January 
12. Finish editting 1 x TFM 
13. Refund emails received over the weekend
14. Trade in books and games to Amazon 
15. Advertise unworn frugi/boden baby clothes on facebook selling groups 

I won't get it all done today, Amazon alone is probably 6 hours! I'm finding myself very short tempered today, I can only assume it's because I slept so badly, lots of nightmares again. Children are also constantly humming or flittering about and not really concentrating today. Never thought I'd be nostalgic for spring lockdown when we could spend so long outside, but here I am. 

kavics177

We are not in lockdown (although we have curfew from 8pm till 5am) thankfully. Kids are at school and mostly everything is back to normal here (apart from secondary schools, they are all online now). Although mask is compulsory even outdoors in cities. Weekend was okay-ish, just visiting my parents and seeing friends outside. We are busy this week, settling in sessions are going well for toddler Kavics and I'm trying to get everything sorted before I go back to work.

Dinah93

Sorry for going a bit awol, cluster headaches had me laid low from the computer for a few days. So that has meant less has been done than planned. 

Homeschooling, kids continue to work hard but biggest mini moneysaver's work can drag on until dinner time, there is just so much of it. How anyone does this alongside 7 hours a day work is beyond me. 

Yesterday I made both lunch and dinner from scratch for the first time in years, usually it's one or the other. I even did a very simple dessert. Lunch was a bit of a shambles though as Tesco substituted my butternut squash for pre-prepped butternut squash soup mix. I thought this meant it just had chopped onions in, fine, going to use it for soup anyway. It's only watching the tears streaming down NIMs face I realised it also had chillis in it. Combined with the orange and ginger I added this was a very odd tasting soup that felt like a feat of indurance rather than the pleasant lunch I had planned! Made up for it by doing them vegan chocolate and biscoff mini tarts for pudding though. 

I did things a little differently this month, as I have no dividends coming in, which make up about 70-80% of my income I didn't make the big overpayment from the credit cards on payday. For the first time though we're coming up to next payday and we still have some money in the bank, not loads but some, and I actually have an idea of what we need each month to live quietly (so not worrying about if we need a new coat or if I have a bit of a 99p kindle book spree, and buying balanced meals we like from the supermarket rather than strictly saying 'it's £60 a week for 4 people, 2 cats and a dog even if that means 3 days of toast'). I anticipate we'll be able to make a small overpayment by the 21st when NIM gets paid, but it also tells me for next month I could overpay by maybe £200 on payday, and then also any extra income we make throughout the month gets paid off in dribs and drabs, going back to old school money saving. So that's what I'll be doing from the 21st. 

Still really need to get equipment set up so I can film a few videos in the next few days. A friend doesn't work Fridays, her doggy died late last year and she's working longer hours now so hasn't gotten a new one, but she's asked if she can take ours for a walk on Fridays which is fine by me as it gives a small window of time each week where I can film or record without barking or chasing of toys provided I can distract the kids with the ipads (not hard if I say 'you can do starlight academy for as long as you want!') 

I think I'm going to focus on the POD today. I got 12 done the other day, so now I'm at 128 more to be caught up to today as I'm aiming to average 10 a day in January. This was a target set before homeschooling though! I also had an ambitious filming schedule which has gone out the window, and a weight loss target which I didn't get started on until we had settled into homeschooling, but again, started is better than not. I've managed to gain a staggering 3 1/2 stone during lockdown, which tells you just how much I rely on my active job to keep me fit and healthy! 

Dinah93

Dinah93 said:

1. Find the last totals so I can finish updating my signature 
2. Set up printful integration to Ebay 
3. Set up printful integration to Amazon
4. Make full spreadsheet of designs so far and check they are all uploaded to all my sites
5. Investigate Medium
6. Set up equipment
7. 5 new equipment videos 
8. Create structure of next TFM script  
9. Create structure of following TFM script
10. Record 3 mini podcasts 
11. Record 2 x TFM podcast
12. 2 new yoga videos 
13. Investigate lockdown grants - Arts Fund/Lottery/NEBL/D/cD/N/H/R/M/RC/Sports England
14. 150 POD designs to get caught up for January - 45 done so far 
15. Trade in books and games to Amazon - about 75% of the way there
16. Advertise unworn frugi/boden baby clothes on facebook selling groups 

Grants I have looked into, but most are being released next week, so I just need to be patient. 

I had big plans for today, but then a sicky puppy put paid to that. I have managed to finish the deep clean of all the upstairs rooms though, as there were a few little bits to do in all, and made a huge batch of soup (that doesn't fit in the fridge! Luckily it's due to be -3C tonight so we've just stuck it in the garage as that's probably as cold if not colder than the fridge). 

This weekend entirely has been a write off really, I just can't do most of my work with lots of people in the house making noise! I'd be a lot less stressed if I just wrote it off for a few months until the kids are back, but it feels like giving up the last shred of my working identity and I'm loathe to give up. Covid has taken enough already.

kavics177

Covid can !!!!!!. I got my jab this morning, the Pfeizer one and due to get the second one in 3 weeks time. I work in occupational health and health care workers are the first one to get it here so by the time I get into the office I will be protected. I'm trully and utterly fed up with restrictions and wearing mask everywhere.
We had snow this weekend so took the kids out and had fun. Toddler Kavics screamed every time she had to share the sledge with mini Kavics so had to bribe both of them to behave. Mini Kavics has been playing up for  2 weeks now,this weekend was a disaster. She cried and whined, talked back and not listened. Not sure if there is a growth spur at this age or some hormonal inbalances but the teenage years will be awful is she is like this right now. Upwards and onwards.

Dinah93

Yey for the jab! 

I think mini Kavics is the same age as my bigger mini moneysaver? If so I think the hormones are to blame, as my sweetness and light child is starting with the mood swings here too. 

Nearly finished our 8 hour stretch of activities all of which seem to be based around pandas. I could get a job in a zoo at this point. 

Got a £166 grant through for one of the companies today, which is great, as that actually only covers a 5 day period when that region was in tier 4, but suggests we'll also be eligible for the lockdown grant which is ongoing. It's about a quarter of what we'd make if we were open, but we don't have all of our open costs to deal with, so it works out about right to keep us ticking over in shut down mode. The £40,000 bounce back loan had been used up by October so these grants are vital to stop us having to file for bankruptcy at this point. We were one of the last things to be allowed to reopen in June/July last year, so I'm not imagining this is going to be a March return unfortunately. 

I've managed to trade in a few more of these books while doing home ed today, my goal today is to get all these books traded in, and this week's podcasts recorded if not edited.